FGI roadshow Part II

Last Wednesday, the FGI Fashion Flash decamped to Melbourne. I wish I could report that the trip involved a tour bus, singing to Tiny Dancer, with Ivan Gomez astride the roof of the vehicle, arms outstretched, screaming “I am a golden God" (Almost Famous joke).

Instead it involved a very pretty aerial view of the snow-clad Australian alps, followed by an arrival at Avalon airport – which, for the benefit of anyone who has never flown Jetstar to Melbourne, is a tin shed in the middle of a paddock located approximately 45 minutes out of the city. You could be forgiven for thinking you had arrived in Dunedoo, not Australia’s second biggest city.

En route I did a Sunster and snapped the view from above:



The second Flash was staged inside an auditorium at RMIT. It was a much smaller setup than the Sydney affair.

The show nevertheless ran to the same format as the Sydney event: the video, topped and tailed by a presentation from FGI's Sydney regional director Mary Gualtieri, followed by the panel discussion.

The Melbourne panellists were Ivan Gomez and Adelaide-based eveningwear designer Razak Mohammed who designs the Razak label. Razak also operates the multibrand emporium Miss Gladys Sym Choon - an Adelaide fashion retail landmark which was opened by its Chinese namesake, Miss Gladys Sym Choon, in 1928.

(L to R) Razak, Mary Gualtieri, Ivan Gomez and me at RMIT:



Razak arrived in a bit of a fluster, nervous about the prospect of facing the audience.

Razak was really very nervous – so nervous that I assumed the entire presentation would have to be carried by Gomez and myself, with Razak trembling in the corner in fear of public speaking.

Once we started however, you couldn’t shut him up.



To one side of the auditorium, as we spoke, a woman furiously scribbled notes and drawings on a couple of large pieces of white paper that had been stuck to the wall.

Mad RMIT professor?

No – graphic recorder.

Que?

Launched in San Francisco in the late 60s/early 70s, the fascinating little world of graphic recording apparently boasts some 500 exponents worldwide.

That's according to Donna McGeorge, the woman with the pencils at the RMIT Fashion Flash.

McGeorge, who normally works as a facilitator, is attempting to kickstart the graphic recording industry in Australia.

The industry Grand Poobah is apparently an American by the name of David Sibbet, who founded "the mecca" of graphic recording in San Francisco: The Grove.

Call them modern-day cave painters, idea mappers - or as McGeorge suggested, "minute-takers on steroids" - graphic recorders capture ideas and expressions as they are being spoken, in the moment.

Just don’t call them cartoonists. Apparently graphic recorders believe the latter term trivialises their work.

The recording instrument of choice is in fact not a pencil, but the Charters brand of felt-tipped pen – purchased from, where else, The Grove.

Here are some before and after shots of the FGI graphic recording, which I gather is later going to be auctioned by FGI for charity.

McGeorge started with an almost blank canvas, save for renderings of a runway and a dress dummy:



Here's the final work. Anyone (such as Jodes) who is interested in a precis of FGI's take on the FW0809 runway trends, click to enlarge - it contains the main points of the video presentation:



Although I did not take any video of McGeorge while she was recording, here is a YouTube video of a graphic recorder in action in the US:



McGeorge and her business partner Deb Dalziel are in Chicago this week attending the 13th annual International Forum for Visual Practitioners conference.

In November in Melbourne, McGeorge will graphically record a presentation by Sir Bob Geldof who is being flown out to Australia by Diversity at Work.


deb dalziel (L) and donna mcgeorge

I was interested to learn that GR guru David Sibbet was originally a journalist - with urban planning ambitions.



I was reminded, for some reason, of the partnership of Hunter S Thompson and illustrator Ralph Steadman. And smiled, when McGeorge mentioned that there’s a point at which a graphic recorder may find themself at risk of no longer recording impartially - but becoming too involved with the story.

Graphic recorders call this “being hooked in content”. Call it the graphic recording equivalent of “Gonzo” journalism.

McGeorge reached it at one point during the FGI trends video presentation, when a series of Prada handbags flashed up on the screen.



"I began salivating" she told me after the presentation.

Noted Dalziel, mimicking McGeorge gobsmacked by the Pradas in mid-record:

“Suddenly you realised, 'OMG I’m in content!'”

FGI roadshow Part I

fgi


I was honoured to be invited to moderate the industry panel discussions at the “Fashion Flash” trends presentations of Fashion Group International's Australian chapter last week. It was in fact the third time that I have been involved in these panels. And while in seasons past I had only ever attended the Sydney event, this time I did both Sydney and Melbourne. It was a lot of fun – and I made one fascinating discovery.

For anyone not familiar with FGI, it’s a non-profit organisation for fashion/beauty/accessories/apparel professionals which is headquartered in New York and boasts 5000 members worldwide.

It was launched in 1928 and its founding members included Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Edith Head, Claire McCardell and Carmel Snow.

No men? That’s right. FGI was founded as a womens-only organisation – at a time when, as FGI’s current president Margaret Hayes reminded those gathered at the organisation's international conference last November in Sydney, the only jobs that women could get were in the fashion, beauty etc industries.

FGI's first office space was donated in fact by Fairchild Publications founder Louis Fairchild - within his Womens Wear Daily building.

Today FGI's board of directors boasts such fashion/beauty luminaries as Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg and Evelyn Lauder and its annual Night of Stars Gala is a big deal in NY.

Oh - and men have since been allowed in.

So as I say, I was honoured to be asked to be involved once again.

The “Fashion Flash” is staged twice a year.

In Australia the event is basically a breakfast (Sydney) or small cocktail (Melbourne) at which FGI’s biannual trends video is shown.

For those who have never seen one before, this trends video is a pretty comprehensive, 40-minute presentation which canvasses the major runway news from approximately 200 shows of the most recent international season.

The videos are narrated by FGI’s longstanding fashion/creative director Marylou Luther and edited in collaboration with a seasonal panel of fashion experts. This season the panel included senior reps from Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and the US magazines Harpers Bazaar and W.

The industry reps later reassemble for a panel discussion following one of the video’s New York showings (I gather they run multiple showings in NY). InStyle fashion director Hal Rubenstein moderated the most recent NY panel discussion in April.

It's a similar scenario here, only that the Australian industry panellists obviously are not involved in the video's editing process.

Although that said, for the Spring/Summer 2008 video which was shown here in November, shots from Australian designer shows in New York and Paris were in fact included - for the first time in the 20-odd years that FGI has been putting the videos together. This was in honour of the fact that FGI's quadrennial international conference was being held that month in Sydney.

In seasons past, I have shared the podium with local names such as Wayne Cooper, Jayson Brunsdon and Aurelio Costarella.

Last week in Sydney, my fellow panellists were Ivan Gomez from the Vicious Threads streetwear label, eveningwear designer Matthew Eager and tailoring specialist Joe Farage.

Beyond the key highlighted trends which include black, purple, jewel colours, the dress, the jacket, winter florals, embellishment, statement jewellery, the stiletto pump, the clutch purse... it was pretty difficult to ignore two overwhelming messages.

The first was Australian models.

There are more Australian models than ever before on international runways and I lost count of the runway shots of local girls. Given the number of shows featured, and the number of models who walked in the FW0809 season shows, there did seem to be an awfully high concentration of Australian faces amongst the images. And multiple images of several models.

Spot the Australians:











Even harder to ignore was the word Recession.

FGI's FW0809 video was peppered with references to the state of the US economy and the word "Recession", together with phrases such as “austerity chic”.

After the presentation I intro'd the panel discussion with a brief chat about Australian designers in the US, the "disaster" of US retail which some Australians are reporting and some of their respective alternative expansion plans. A case in point, Jayson Brunsdon's new Singapore boutique.

The day before the Sydney presentation, coincidentally, WWD had in fact devoted its cover story to "Fashion's First Aid Kit", together with a graphic of a white doctor's bag and nine key survival points that had been gleaned via discussions with 30 key business leaders.

I read the nine points out - and, amusingly, they wound up in a recording of the following day's presentation in Melbourne (see next post).

The panel then chatted about the coming winter trends but more importantly, the business/retail climate and how each business is adapting.



Among many other points, Matthew Eager (^) mentioned the need to be conscious of price points.



Ivan Gomez (^) talked about diversifying into corporate and other licensed apparel.



And in the experience of Joe Farage (^), the tailoring business is somewhat insulated from economic downturns.

A large percentage of Farage's business (which is split 50/50 womens/mens) is work attire. When times are tough, and for obvious reasons, it seems everyone wants to look their best on the job.













The bag on the left below really stood out. I just couldn't put my finger on where I had seen it before....